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Most Oil Heaters Will Get Cleaner, But Dirtiest Won't

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Buildings in most of New York state and the city burn number two home heating fuel, which a new state law is going to sharply restrict. Photo by: Versageek

Gov. Paterson is expected to sign a law that will reduce the sulfur content in oil used to heat most homes. But other, dirtier heating fuels are exempted from the measure. By: Chris Giblin

Last week, the state Assembly passed a bill that would reduce sulfur emissions in home heating oil. The bill, which the State Senate passed on June 17th and which Gov. Paterson is expected to sign into law shortly, was backed by an unusual alliance of businesses and environmentalists.

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Where The Homeless Kids Are

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Among the 35,451 people living in New York City’s homeless shelters on Wednesday, June 23rd, there were 14,437 children, according to the city’s Department of Homeless Services.While many students in New York City’s public school system face steep challenges, few face more difficult obstacles than those whose home is a shelter.Reporters at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism have produced a comprehensive report on homeless students in the city, including this map by reporters Colby Hamilton and Alana Casanova-Burgess showing which districts hosted the largest numbers of homeless students during the 2008-2009 school year. For more coverage of issues facing youth in New York City, check out City Limits magazine.

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Housing Costs Devour More Family Budgets

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Despite neighborhoods littered with vacant homes and sale prices that dropped dramatically in the past three years, more Americans are spending more of their money on housing expenses than ever before. A report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found 18.6 million American households –renters and homeowners alike – spend more than half their income on housing, up from 13.8 million in 2001. Dedicating more than 30 percent of income to rent or mortgage is considered unhealthy. The study, Harvard’s annual State of the Nation’s Housing report found that as the housing market slowly recovers, it is getting harder for low-income people to afford their homes. More homeowners and renters are devoting half or more of their income to housing costs than ever before.

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Worries About E-Voting Persist As Primary Looms

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Throughout New York State, county legislatures and election authorities have raised serious concerns about state and federal laws requiring them to replace lever machines with electronic systems before the September primaries. The advocacy group Election Transparency Coalition has a map showing over 20 counties that have passed resolutions or sent letters to the State Board of Elections opposing the transition. The election commissioners of Nassau County have filed a lawsuit to stop the transition to computerized machines on the grounds that the new machines are untested, faulty, owned by a corporate giant and prone to fraud. In New York City, however, the major concern is that changing the machines properly is going to be too expensive for the Board of Elections to afford amid budget cuts. George Gonzalez, the deputy executive director of the New York City Board of Elections, last month told a state Assembly committee that state and federal legislation is forcing the city to switch voting machines without providing “adequate financial and human resources” to implement the change.

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Dig Deeper Into The Schools Debate

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Kindergarten teacher Alison Brackman of P.S. 230 in Kensington, Brooklyn, tells parents that there are two kinds of books: Meat-and-potatoes reads, which stay with you long after they’re finished, and potato-chip books – momentarily delicious, but utterly forgettable. Summer reading traditionally falls square into the potato-chip camp, but for readers still hungry for substance–especially with a focus on city schools–three recent books are worth a bite. Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic Books, 284 pp., $26.95) itemizes New York’s premier education historian’s evolution in school-reform thinking. Long before it was fashionable, Ravitch championed data-based accountability and national curriculum standards, as part of the (first) Bush and Clinton administrations. Yet now that the reform pendulum has swung hard to the accountability pole, Ravich’s book recants her earlier positions, with meticulous explanations of why her beliefs have shifted.